Dennis Lennox: Don't count The Terminator out

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

The Terminator is back. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the movie star-turned-governor of California, has been in the public spotlight the past few days promoting his new 646-page book titled “Total Recall: My Ubelievably True Life Story.”

Schwarzenegger left office in January 2011. His life had hit an all-time low after he acknowledged committing adultery and siring a son out of wedlock.

It was a huge fall from grace for the once promising Republican politician, who for years could be found around this time every two or four years headlining party fundraisers across the country.

Despite all of his self-caused troubles, Schwarzenegger remains in a position that virtually all politicians envy. His core constituency has declined, but he enjoys universal name recognition and has the ability to make news. Not to mention Schwarzenegger’s vast wealth allows him to bankroll causes and campaigns, though not at the same level of his former political helpmate Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire mayor of New York.

Sure Schwarzenegger disgraced himself, but so did Bill Clinton.

Despite having been impeached and nearly removed from office for lying under oath and having improper sexual relations with a White House intern, the forty-second president’s star power is as big as ever. Granted Clinton hasn’t run for office, but that isn’t the point. As an ex-president, he has heaps of influence — and certainly a lot more money. One moment he can play the role of partisan bombardier, as he did at the Democratic National Convention, and the next moment he can be the statesman hobnobbing with diplomats and heads of state on the fringes of the United Nations General Assembly.

A Schwarzenegger comeback wouldn’t be surprisingly though the odds of Schwarzenegger running again are slim. Then again while it’s tough to imagine him in the U.S. Senate pundits said much the same about comedian Al Franken, the junior senator from Minnesota. Regardless, he can use his notoriety to become the patron of causes that fit into the moderate, post-partisan soapbox he advocated from as governor.

Innovators, entrepreneurs and job creators, including those in Hollywood, have left in droves because of high taxes and burdensome regulations. Combined with years of chronic overspending and dysfunctional one-party control over most of state government, California arguably has more in common with the bankrupt government of Greece than the other 49 states.

Signs of a Schwarzenegger rehabilitation are already there what with the recent opening of his namesake Institute for State and Global Policy at the University of Southern California.

Schwarzenegger’s story — both his rise and the fall — is a compelling and timely narrative of achieving the American dream without the welfare of the public purse.

At a time when too many want government to be responsible for creating prosperity, his only-in-America story is a major asset that must be told.